A Note From Our Pastor: January 18, 2026

Soon (January 21st), we will celebrate the memorial of a saint, dear to my heart, St. Agnes (NOTE: my black labrador before Cosmas, was named Agnes). Also known as Agnes of Rome, little is known of her except that she was martyred very young (13 years old, 304 A.D.), during the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian (284-305).

Tradition says she was born into a family of Roman nobility who were Christian. A man named Sempronius, an appointed official in Roman society, wished to marry young Agnes. She was not interested in marriage. In retribution for this rejection, Sempronius reported her for being Christian. She was tortured and eventually executed. Today, there’s a church in a part of the city of Rome called the Piazza Navona, where exists the church, St. Agnes in Agony. Tradition holds that this was the place of her martyrdom.

Agnes’ bones are today preserved beneath the high altar of the 4th century church, St. Agnes Outside the Wall (about seven miles north of the place of her death). As with many martyrs, her popularity spread throughout Europe. In his writing entitled On Virgins, Saint Ambrose writes: “As a bride she would not be hastening to join her husband with the same joy she shows as a virgin on her way to punishment, crowned not with flowers but with holiness of life, adorned not with braided hair but with Christ himself!” She is the patron saint of chastity, gardeners, girls, engaged couples, rape victims, and virgins.

In art, Agnes is often depicted holding a lamb. This is because the name Agnes is derived from the Greek word hagne, which means ‘chaste, pure’. The name Agnes resembles the word ‘agnus’, Latin for ‘lamb’ (as in ‘Agnus Dei’), thus the connection she bears with the lamb, shown held in her arms.

An interesting detail: since the 1400s, each year, on the Feast of St. Agnes, two young lambs (yes, living), are presented to the pope for blessing. They’re presented basked decorated with red and white flowers and streamers,—red symbolizing Agnes' martyrdom, and white for her purity.

Afterward, the lambs are entrusted to Benedictine nuns, who care for the sheep. Then on the Thursday before Easter the two lambs are sheared. Their wool is used to make approximately 12 pallia. The pallia are then placed in an urn near St. Peter’s tomb until the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul (June 29th). At that time, the pope blesses them and bestows them upon any newly appointed archbishops. A pallium is worn by archbishops at significant ceremonies. Adorned with six small crosses, the black and white wool pallium lays over their shoulders and forms a y-shape in both front and back. Archbishops are buried wearing their pallia.

Yours in Christ,

Father Todd O. Strange